Russia is a big country and the regions themselves can decide how to
hold elections for governors, Russian President Vladimir
Putin stated at a press conference in Moscow.
According to him, Russia is ready for gubernatorial elections.
"We are for the direct election of governors. I believe that Russia is
of course ready for it. This is, in fact, in the interests of the
federal government, because when people are choosing governors, they
became responsible for the quality of their work," Putin said,
answering a question on the discussion of the partial cancellation of
the direct election of governors.
The president recalled that the question of direct elections for
governors was proposed by the representatives of the national
republics. "These are the republics where representatives of different
titular nations have lived side by side for centuries ... And if one of them
is in the minority, then there are fears that it will never be
represented at the highest level in the government of the region,"
Putin said.
"We have to keep this in mind, unless we want to unbalance the whole
system of governance in the country and create such conflicts. No, the
people who can see these problems in the autonomous republics raised
the issue - 'Give us the right to develop a system that will bring to
power leaders of the republics who would not infringe on anyone',"
Putin quotes the representatives of the republics.
He used the situation in Dagestan as an example, where such a
system had existed for many years, although, as noted by the head of
state, in contradiction with the fundamental law of the country. The
top positions in the country are under the control of the various
nationalities and are rotated.
"I think we need to give this right to subjects, but we cannot give
one subject one right, and another to the others. We should not take
away this right from regions with a homogeneous population,
Russian, for instance. We should discuss it and keep it in some
regions and give the opportunity for the people in the national
republics to make decisions in accordance with their traditions, their
culture, that will be optimal and save us from ethnic and
religious conflicts," the president said.
